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Here is an article with some good ecommerce tips for web designers from guest author, Mike in Stockhom. Enjoy!— Jim

Simplicity works wonders, even when it comes to designing an ecommerce site. There are certain basic variables that, when incorporated uniquely, will give you a fantastic site.

Appearance

The colour and font style and other such formatting requirements are to be given extreme importance. Web designers can ensure that text is aligned and justified. The lack of these will give your site a very shabby appearance. Even if you are promoting goods in a very casual way, stay away from using abbreviations or “lol-speak” in every sentence. Instead, use them at the end of a text to create an impact.

Use vibrant colours to help users differentiate between various options. This will be particularly helpful when it comes to attached links.

Try and maintain a team of designers who have helped in the making of the website for you, so that if there is a glitch, it can be handled then and there without mucking up with the rest of the site.

Keep in mind that most people are not here to scrutinize the website if it loads quickly and the transactions made are smooth. Make sure your website is not too heavy for the browser to load.

Customer Orientation

Let the requirements and special needs of targeted buyers become a part of your weekly review. Ecommerce web designers can keep a constant assessment of what has to be done in order to make your online customer feel good about coming to your site for making a purchase.

Keep the layout of the sight user-friendly. While a staple design may seem boring, it is helpful because many people will subconsciously be able to work with a site which has a familiar layout.

Do not load too many advertisements on your main page as it makes the site very bulky and thus takes time to load. Anything that takes too much time to load is your worst enemy.

While you may arrange these decisions based on costs, it is very important that the site is made to have a high level of accessibility. But then again, you do not need to spend a lot of money – instead, keep it simple and to the point.

Use fresh content. Every other site is going to be saying the same thing. The difference lies in the way it is put through.

Ensure that your product search and navigation is clear. Also, make it easy for people to sort through articles easily.

Ensure all costs are made clear well before time. When you collect information from the customer, make sure it is only the basic minimum. No one likes to write pages and pages on an e-store form.

Security and Trust

Ensure that the securities of offered transactions are never compromised. Let no lack of human contact leave the customer worried about any misgivings.

While writing out the policies, make sure that they are as simple as possible so that everyone can understand and make clear inferences based on the same.

Offer a range of payment options and also cater to various languages.

Most of this is intuitive. Keep things effortless and see the overall results.

Mike is an ecommerce solutions specialist based in Stockholm. He focuses on creating effective web design for small ecommerce websites. He also reviews services from Ecommerce web designers uk

With the invention of the Internet came a list of endless possibilities, one of which is e-commerce. E-commerce has become so popular today because of many factors that are in favor of the suppliers, buyers, and business owners.

A Wider Scope

E-commerce has become increasingly popular due to its scope. An e-commerce site can reach far more people than a local store can. It has the ability to reach so many potential buyers because of the sheer number of people who use the Internet daily.

If a store owner were to own a local shop, that shop would most likely only be exposed to the people living within its proximity and those who stumble upon it. This aspect also appeals to suppliers because e-commerce sites can reach out to a larger amount of people and their products in turn would also get exposure to a bigger population of people.

Ecommerce Breaks Barriers

Aside from reaching out to a larger community, eCommerce also breaks location barriers. It allows people from faraway places to purchase from your store. If an item in their area is not available and it is available in your shop, it allows them to buy from you even if they are located miles away. It also saves people the trouble of having to go somewhere far just to buy a certain product they want or need.

Lower Prices

Another feature that has made eCommerce increasingly popular is its relatively lower pricing for items. It costs less to run an eCommerce site than it does to spend setting up a store in town. You don’t have to pay for many employees, electricity, rent and other expenses. Due to this, store owners can afford to price their items at a lower price because they do not have to add to the items the cost of running the place. Customers then get attracted to this — who wouldn’t want to buy the same item at a cheaper price?

More Convenient

Ecommerce sites are also extremely convenient. They provide the same options other stores do and you don’t even have to leave your house. In eCommerce, the store goes to you instead of you going to the store. This appeals to many people especially now that eCommerce sites provide added security, privacy policies, guarantees and even more options to pay and decide, sometimes more than local stores. Theses websites are also open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can shop at your own time and at your own pace. This is again extremely convenient especially for those who do not have the time to force their schedules into regular working days and store hours.

Easier Marketing Options

There are also more marketing features available online for eCommerce businesses like affiliate marketing that make setting up a business so much easier. It is a lot of money to spend on local, print and television and marketing that often times your business doesn’t get the adequate start up marketing it needs to grow. This problem isn’t as grave for online businesses.

Guest Author’s bio:Mike writes about ecommerce web designersand other such companies. His articles aim to help first time web owners in their search for web design agencies.

A few simple things usually define the success of an Ecommerce website and whether a customer trusts it to be authentic and reliable. When a company builds an Ecommerce website, it usually focuses on Search engine optimization and other techniques to generate traffic. What it forgets is the simple fact that conversion rate is very important to define the success of an Ecommerce website. A customer would not buy a product until he feels that a website is trustworthy. In order to do this, you have to build trust and integrate few things in a website, so that a potential customer trusts your website and your organization.

In this article, we will give you some simple tips which will help you with trust building. A customer who trusts your website and finds it safe for monetary transactions will go ahead and buy the products without any hesitation. Here are some things that an Ecommerce web design agency should always remember while building a website.

Some Factors Which Are Important For Building Trust In A Customer’s Mind

Accurate and Sufficient Description – First of all, you should provide sufficient and accurate information to your visitors. Everything should be clearly explained. This includes product information, delivery time, shipping charges etc. During online shopping, a customer can not touch, feel or taste any products. It is your duty to provide all necessary information so that a customer is able to understand what is being offered. If a customer does not receive exactly what he was being offered on the website, you are likely to lose any repeat purchases. It also hurts the reputation of your organization.

Reviews and Testimonials – It is important to include some testimonials and reviews from your past customers. A visitor always checks for reviews whenever he visits a new website. Positive reviews will give an impression that your products are worthy and there are no flaws in your website. A customer is more likely to make a purchase if there are positive reviews. You should also encourage visitors to write reviews for your website. This is a good way to get some feedback and rectify any errors.

Privacy and Warranty Policies – It is important to provide all necessary information regarding your company’s privacy and warranty policies. Ecommerce is usually based on financial transactions through credit or debit cards. Customers never want such private and confidential information to get into wrong hands. Therefore, they always seek a website with a strong privacy policy. A strong privacy policy will ensure that the customer’s information will not be shared with anyone and his mailbox will not be spammed.

Moreover, it is also important to have a strong warranty policy. This is because a customer can not touch or use the product before buying it through a website. A warranty policy convinces him that you are willing to replace a product in case there are some faults. Most of the companies provide a return policy too. They give a testing period in which a customer can test the product and return it if he is not satisfied.

It is also important to include all kinds of business seals and certificates. If they are not present, it has a negative impact on your website. Customers usually check seals and security statements before they make a purchase.

Contact Information – In order to build trust, an ecommerce web design agency should also include a company’s contact information in the web design. Not only telephone number and email addresses, but also a physical address should be given if possible.

A gateway is the link between your client’s e-commerce store and their credit card processor. They don’t have to have a gateway to take credit cards on-line. Instead they can manually take credit card order info from their e-commerce store and input the information themselves. However, unless they have a very low volume store, they will find the hassle of re-inputting the info and the chances of making mistakes makes the extra fees of a gateway seem reasonable. If they aren’t sure, they can start without the gateway and add it later. Continue reading →

Definitions

A Merchant Account is what your client needs in order to accept credit cards from their customers. A Merchant Account is needed to take credit cards for either an on-line store or a physical store location (known as a brick-and-mortar store). The alternative is for your client to take credit cards through a third-party supplier such as PayPal. Continue reading →

When I started learning about e-commerce, all the terms were confusing and blended together. To help you, here are some basics. I’ve split this into the two main services your client will need from you and I linked them to separate articles to help clarify the process for you: